The University of Texas at Dallas has risen 87 spots in Times Higher Education’s recently released “World University Rankings,” reflecting strides in the University’s quest to become a national research university.

President David E. Daniel

The U.K.-based magazine evaluated universities from around the world on 13 performance measures, including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. UT Dallas’ biggest gain came in the citation category, which measures how much universities contribute to the sharing of new knowledge and ideas.

“It is certainly gratifying to have independent acknowledgment of our efforts,” said President David E. Daniel. “These accolades are a tribute to our faculty’s focus on teaching and research, and to our staff’s unwavering commitment to supporting the University’s mission.

UT Dallas was one of only four Texas universities to make the top 200 in the international ranking, moving from 254 to 167 in 2012. The others were UT Austin, Rice University and Texas A&M.

The 2012-2013 report places UT Dallas 64th among U.S. universities, and it ranks UT Dallas 35th among public U.S. universities.

The University’s rise in rankings reflects the continued quality of its student body: Freshmen at UT Dallas continue to have the highest SAT scores among public universities in

Texas and nearly 39 percent of them ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

“Since its founding, the single focus of UT Dallas has been on intellectual excellence, in research and in student learning. It was greatly rewarding to learn that this international study of the entire world of higher education, using objective evaluation criteria rather than historically inherited reputations or television publicity, recognized the achievements of our students and faculty and ranked our steadily growing and improving university so highly.” said Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, executive vice president and provost.

Other Rankings Highlights

In addition to the Times Higher Education rankings, the University has been listed in several other rankings, including:

U.S. News & World Report’s “2013 Best Graduate Schools” report, in which the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences’ audiology program moved up to third place in the nation, and its speech-language pathology program rose to 11th place.

The Princeton Review, in conjunction with GamePromagazine, recognized undergraduate and graduate programs for video game design as among the top 50 in the country.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine ranked the University as one of the top 50 best values among the nation’s public colleges.